Spoon Boy

Dab On That Hypothermia

We were too young to have to break relationships like this, and too young to mend them back again.

No sleep befell upon me that night, too cold and too many emotions going through my head. Instead, I tended to the fire. As I thought to myself I felt dumb, the reveal of Easton's rebel status shouldn't have been as big as it was. The signs were all there if you looked close enough. The scratches and bruises that I had assumed were from training, the way he was naturally 'talented' at hand to hand combat, the way he never really revealed much of his past, and of course that stupid bright green bandanna that I had seen in his pockets.

It was an hour before dawn when Easton woke up, I didn't turn to look at him as he sat beside me at the fire.

"Did you get any sleep?" He questioned, his voice soft.

"No, It was too cold." Even my tone of voice was cold as ice

"I was going to tell you eventually, I wanted to tell you sooner but I just couldn't."

"It's fine Easton, I understand they were orders. But I can't help but think that our friendship wasn't real. Was it? Or did you just hang with me because of your orders?" I accused

"You want me to be completely honest?" He sighed "Fine, yes at first they were my orders."

"Of cour-"

"Let me finish Jake. At first yes, I was supposed to bring you in sooner. Remember the shower, I was supposed to take you with me then. But I like being your friend Jake, I know it'll be hard to convince you that I truly honestly do. Trust me this once, please."

It took me a minute to think things over "Okay."

The sun was barely visible on the horizon, there we sat by the fire. Ari slept as peacefully as he could, shivers racked his body. In terms of clothing, he was worse off than me. While I was wearing sweatpants and a short sleeve shirt, Ari had decided to wear a tank top and basketball shorts for training. Upon closer examination, you could see his lips are tinted blue and that his skin was pale.

Easton walked over to his lover and turned to me "He's really cold, we should wake him and move him to the fire."

To wake up his boyfriend, Easton pressed his lips against Ari's. It worked.

Ari sat up groggily "Easton?"

"Yeah it's me, now come on let's get you to the fire you're freezing."

Easton helped Ari stand on his own, move towards the fire, and sit at a warm but safe distance. His color started to return as his shivering subsided.

"We should find a clothing store in the next town, I think we could all use a coat or two," Easton announced.

As the sun peaked over the horizon we packed up and started towards Oklahoma. Easton, somehow, pulled a map out of seemingly nowhere.

"According to my map, we should go through Kentucky and Missouri if we want to get to the base quickly. If we're lucky we might be able to catch a ride"

"Where did you even get that map?" Ari questioned

"You don't want to know." was Easton's answer

And so we walked, we walked through the very cold snow. The color Ari regained was once again lost and he was back to the shivering shell of his old self.

"How m-m-much longer until the next t-t-town?" his teeth chattered

"We should be coming right up on it soon," I answered this time